A Chinese woman sent £20,000 up in smoke after stashing the cash in a wood burning stove and then forgetting it was there.

Hao Bin, 35, wanted to keep the money safe until it was needed to pay workers at her husband's construction business, and hid it inside the stove to keep it out of sight.

But the next morning, forgetting it was there, she lit the stove to make herself a cup of tea - and only realised when she went to aadd more wood.

Mrs Bin threw water onto the remains and rescued some charred notes, but was told by the Bank of China that they were in too poor a condition to be exchanged.

It's comparatively common to keep large sums of cash at home in China, thanks to a widespread mistrust of banks. Unsurprisingly, this can frequently lead to accidents such as the Bins'.

To read the complete article, see:
Woman sets fire to £20,000 by mistake